Alan Beddow is an IT Project Manager, amateur sound engineer, former Parliamentary Candidate, Warwick Resident and general good egg.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Left, Right and Centre.

Well things are developing much as expected in Lib-Dem land. It is likely we shall have Campbell, Oaten and Hughes to choose from perhaps even Hemming if he can round up the remaining MP votes.

One thing we MUST not get drawn into which the Media, lacking imagination would love, is for us to get dragged into the Left vs Right debate. This would of course centre around Oaten and Hughes. We must not allow that to happen. We must use this leadership contest to showcase what we stand for as well as allowing healthy debate and the election of a strong leader.

I once read a book comparing the wisdom of Sun Tsu and the art of warfare in business. I guess it applies well to politics as well. "We must fight on ground of our choosing". The other two parties and the media cannot see past the old two dimensional left right political model based on first past the post and two party politics, they feel comfortable with it, this is dinosaur politics.. This is not ground of our choosing.

We stand for a proportionally Represented Multi Party, decentralised, centre ground, with a balance between Market Economics and Social Justice. Lets debate this leadership election on these terms, on our turf and not allow us to get drawn into the Left Right debate at all.

If politics is a greasy pole, as Charles Kennedy has sadly discovered, then his obvious successor, Simon Hughes, now needs to seize that pole with a very firm grip.

Hughes is respected in all quarters as decent, compassionate, urbane, witty, intelligent, principled and also vastly experienced.

More to the point, for the future of the Lib Dems, he is hugely popular with the public.

For all his personal qualities, that easy affection which people from all walks of life offer him is the most significant reason why he is the right man to lead them into a share of Government later this year.

After half a generation of a "New Labour" experiment that has ended up looking as clueless and lacklustre as the dying and dreary Conservative administration it replaced, Britain is long overdue the freshness and vitality that has always characterised the bulk of the Liberal Democrat policy canon.

That's why the Lib Dem membership owe it to the country to choose the man whose electability offers them the best chance of a serious role in Government that has beckoned many times but hitherto remained tantalisingly just out of reach.